


watch the snowflakes shatter (and i will call you my hope)

by wasatch_97



Series: Holiday Lights [3]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Getting Together, M/M, communication is key folks, getting back together i guess lol, high school sweethearts, holiday ficccc, past breakup, past relationship, theyre both idiots, uh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:20:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29543676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wasatch_97/pseuds/wasatch_97
Summary: Jisung thinks that his first trip home in just over four years should be relaxing. He shouldn’t have to be kneeling in the snow, making sure the joints to the wings of his plow aren’t iced over. He shouldn’t have to be sitting in a pickup truck that he hasn’t driven in four years, waiting for the engine to warm up.But here he is, and though unhappy about his situation, he decides to make the best of it. He cranks up the heat to full and rolls down his window, shivering at the far-below freezing air. He knows better than to roll it back up, though; if he does the windshield will fog up in a second and he could get into a lot of trouble.After everything is warmed Jisung lets muscle memory take over, and he shifts the truck into gear and pulls out onto the road to begin his job.
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know
Series: Holiday Lights [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2048982
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	watch the snowflakes shatter (and i will call you my hope)

**Author's Note:**

> hey hi hello!
> 
> welcome to the last installment of holiday lights TT this fic is absolutely wild and it has no editing so prepare yourselves :D
> 
> ➜ [pinterest board here!](https://pin.it/5loHWQd)

It isn’t like Jisung had asked to be a road commissioner. He absolutely did not. But his uncle was eligible for voting and he had gotten elected by the board. He then awarded Jisung the chance to plow half of the main roads of their small town and Jisung had accepted, afraid of getting cast out into the cold if he didn’t.

Jisung thinks that his first trip home in just over four years should be relaxing. He shouldn’t have to be kneeling in the snow, making sure the joints to the wings of his plow aren’t iced over. He shouldn’t have to be sitting in a pickup truck that he hasn’t driven in four years, waiting for the engine to warm up. 

But here he is, and though unhappy about his situation, he decides to make the best of it. He cranks up the heat to full and rolls down his window, shivering at the far-below freezing air. He knows better than to roll it back up, though; if he does the windshield will fog up in a second and he could get into a lot of trouble. 

After everything is warmed Jisung lets muscle memory take over, and he shifts the truck into gear and pulls out onto the road to begin his job. 

It gets mindless after a while; going along the roads, headlights on in the dark of early morning, while a wave of snow is propelled along the side of his plow to land just past the shoulder of the road. It takes him on a run down memory lane, though, as he passes all the familiar places and houses he’d visited countless times as a child and then a teen. When he comes up to one particular homestead, he knows he has to stop.

Jisung pulls over to the side and rolls down the passenger window so he can get a good view of the house. It’s just as he has remembered it; set back quite a ways from the road, it’s a New England style home, blue, that is now draped in snow. The barn is to the left of the house and Jisung is hit with a wave of nostalgia as he thinks back to all the times he’d played in that building as a kid. 

The house looks completely still, aside from light that is coming from what Jisung knows to be the kitchen window. Glancing at the time displayed on the dash of the truck, Jisung realizes that people should be beginning to get up now; it’s close to six. 

Jisung takes one last long look at the house, wondering how the owner is faring; she was elderly when Jisung knew her as a child, and through his teen years she was kept close company by Jisung’s childhood best friend. 

Jisung shakes his head, knowing he’s been here long enough, and shifts the truck into gear. He’s about to pull out into the road when he hears a voice call out. 

“Hey,” the disembodied voice is coming closer and soon the perpetrator is at Jisung’s window, bent over and panting from the apparent sprint he’d taken to get to Jisung before he left. 

And, even at this awful angle, Jisung feels his world slip away. 

“Hey, I’m not very good with a plow and I was wondering if you could plow my place out? I’ll pay you, I know it’s not part of the town contract.” 

Jisung shudders at the voice he hasn’t heard in far too long, and when he speaks he’s surprised the name doesn’t crumble apart. 

_“Minho.”_

Minho has straightened up in a flash, and he’s now gaping at Jisung, as if he’s a mythical being that has never been spotted before. Jisung takes the moments of silent disbelief to look Minho over. 

It’s not to say he hasn’t changed over the past four years, because he has. His face is slimmer and his hair is black, unlike the blond it had been when they last saw each other. But Jisung finds more similarities than differences; he’s wearing the hat his grandmother had knit him and the wool coat he had pulled on is, to Jisung’s surprise, one of his own that Minho must have taken before he left. 

And Minho’s eyes are the same; dark, near black but in the light there’s a color difference between his pupils and irises. 

Time seems to still for just the briefest of moments, but then the recognition and shock fades from Minho’s features and Jisung is fixed with a glare full of hurt. “Jisung...you’re back?” 

Jisung nods, unsure if he can trust his voice. Minho doesn’t appear like he’s going to speak again so Jisung takes a chance. “The driveway, I’ll plow it. And don’t pay me, it’s for Gram, right?” He’s grinning at the end, hoping to spark some sort of a smile from Minho. 

Minho looks more down than he had before, though. “Gram, she died almost two years ago, now. She left me the house.” 

“Oh, Minho,” Jisung pushes away all of his grief to focus on what Minho must have been feeling all this time; he was closer to his grandmother than anyone in his family. “I’m so sorry. But, you didn’t tell me? You’ve had my phone number...” He was close with the woman too, as he and Minho had been joined at the hip.

Minho shrugs and looks away. “You would have come to the funeral, even if you had to fight every one of us to do so. I didn’t want to see you, Jisung. Not when I was that sad.” 

Jisung feels a kind of anger in his chest but he forces it aside. He understands that Minho was hurt by him deciding to move away for school, instead of going to the local college, but Minho was selfish by denying him the right to go to the funeral. But Jisung doesn’t want to fight, so instead he gestures to the seat next to him. “Get in.” 

For a moment Minho looks like he won’t but eventually he sighs and walks around the back of the truck to get in on the passenger side. 

“You know how it is, there are stakes on the sides of the driveway,” Minho tells him when Jisung has pulled the truck around and lowered the plow. 

He does; he’s plowed this awfully long driveway every year as a teen, and most of the years he’d used this same pickup truck. 

Some things never change, he figures. 

They don’t speak as Jisung drives along towards the house, careful of the stakes. It’s only when they’re at the top that Minho turns to him, and the slight shift immediately makes Jisung still. 

“Why are you here?” His words are steady and Jisung can tell he’s regained some of the anger he’s held against Jisung for these four years. 

“Uncle made me--” 

“No,” Minho hisses, exasperated. “Why are you here in this town? Why, Jisung?” 

“I thought I should come back.” 

Minho unclips his seatbelt and grapples for the door handle. “For how long,” he whispers under his breath, but before Jisung can answer he’s slammed the door shut and stalked off towards the house.

Jisung finishes plowing the gravel strip in front of the barn. The whole time he can feel Minho’s gaze on him from the kitchen window.

Jisung has been dreading the time when he’ll cross paths with Minho again. It’s inevitable, since they live in such a small town, and the unknown is terrifying to Jisung. 

After each new snowfall this week he’s spent hours behind the wheel thinking about Minho. Minho who he had known since they were both ten. Minho who he had gone to school with. Minho who Jisung had fallen head over heels for and vice versa; high school sweethearts, could be a descriptor for them. Minho who wanted nothing more than to have a beautiful, quiet life in the town he was raised in.

And that is what broke them; Jisung wanted to leave and study outside of the bubble of life he’d always been in while Minho was already at home. 

When Minho found out that Jisung accepted an offer from a college he hadn’t told him about, one that was far away, it had gotten ugly. They fought, badly, only for Minho to find his way back into Jisung’s arms the next day. It was rocky, and felt like everything could crumble for the weeks after. And it did, when Minho told Jisung he didn’t want a long distance relationship. 

And somehow, eight years of companionship was washed away in just a few words.

Two weeks later Jisung left for college with no plans of coming back. 

And there had been no contact between them, so Jisung wonders exactly why the thought of seeing Minho makes him so tense. 

When they do cross paths it’s in the Village Variety shop up on the main street through town, a crappy little store filled with drinks and snacks and lottery tickets. Jisung is searching through the row of candies, hunting for starburst gummies, when the chime above the door sounds. Out of habit he glances up, only to be taken aback by Minho. 

Their eyes meet immediately. 

“Jisung, I’m surprised you’re still here,” Minho says, and there’s an edge to his voice that wasn’t there that morning they had first caught up. 

“I’ll just get out of your way,” Jisung says, ditching the candy in favor of slipping past Minho to the door. 

“Why,” Minho says before Jisung can pass him. They’re close now, and Jisung could count Minho’s freckles if he wanted to. “Why did you not tell me about the college?” 

“I was scared,” Jisung murmurs, and he watches Minho’s eyes widen when Jisung speaks instead of runs. “I knew you wanted to stay here. I was stupid, I thought that if somehow I could tell you the right way, maybe it could have worked out between us.” 

“And what was _the right way_?” Minho asks, and his voice raises with anger. 

Jisung looks around the shop, embarrassed when the clerk glares at him. “Come on, let’s talk outside.” 

“It’s cold out there,” Minho says, and Jisung can tell he’s pressing his buttons to get a reaction. 

Tired, Jisung rubs at his forehead and then drops his hand to glare at Minho. “Get in the truck then, Min. Let’s not have a fight right here.” 

“You want a fight?” 

“Get in the fucking truck and yeah, maybe we’ll have a go at each other.” Jisung brushes past Minho and steps out of the store. Like Minho had said, the air is frigid, so he hurries to his pickup he’d parked on the side of the road just a few yards away. He hears Minho’s footsteps behind him but doesn’t look back. 

When they’re both in the truck and Jisung has turned on the heat, Minho shifts to face Jisung, completely emotionless, aside from the faint droop of his eyes, like this interaction is making him sad. “So. You didn’t tell me about the school, and you’re saying that because I found out that I was the one to break us up?” 

“You were,” Jisung says, his hands landing on the steering wheel with more force than necessary. “We talked it over. We decided I would come back every other weekend and for all the holidays. It was a done deal until out of the blue you told me you couldn’t do it and didn’t give me a chance to ask why.” Jisung feels the sting of tears in his eyes. 

“I didn’t want to hold you back,” is what Minho whispers, and Jisung’s head turns so quickly his neck begins to ache. Minho is looking at his lap and Jisung can see the tears that are hitting the material of his pants. “I thought I’d give you a fair chance to experience everything. All the people.” 

Jisung rubs at his eyes, but knows it’s no use when the tears begin. “You should have said that, Min. And I did go explore the world. But I never met anyone that was close to having the impact you’ve had on my heart. I didn’t come back here because you told me not to. If you had said that I would have come back, because I would have understood where you were coming from.” 

“So am I the stupid one?” Minho asks, and his voice shakes at the words. 

Jisung reaches over and pulls Minho into a hug across the console, startling him, but the hug is warm and he feels Minho melt not seconds later. “I was stupid for not telling you from the start. We both...had a part in ending us.” 

Minho grips the fabric of Jisung’s coat at his waist, “When are you going back? To your world.” 

Jisung’s hand rubs along Minho’s spine while the other slips into his hair. “I got a job forty minutes south of here. I start next month.” He feels Minho gasp, and soon he’s pulling away, all wide-eyed and thrown off. “I’m planning on renting something down there.” 

“Stay with me,” Minho whispers, all red-cheeked and winded, and Jisung is sure he appears the same. “Gram’s house is too big for just me. Stay with me there. Please, Jisung?” 

Jisung pulls Minho into another hug, not caring about the pain the console brings to his hip as he leans across. “If you want me I’ll be there.”

(they drive off into the sunset, plow and all.)

**Author's Note:**

> lena wanted me to keep in the last line and tbh so did i 
> 
> > [twitter](https://twitter.com/wasatch97)  
> > [tumblr](https://wasatch97.tumblr.com/)  
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